1940 Saarbrucken Grand Prix

The 1940 Saarbrucken Grand Prix was a motor racing tournament held in Saarbrucken, Saarland, Nazi Germany in May 1940. The winner, Kurt Dierker, and the vast majority of the racing participants were Germans (specifically from Team Doppelsieg), while Irish racer Sean Devlin, representing the Morini Racing Team, stood out as one of the very few (if only) foreigners. Devlin, a skilled racer, made it to first place about halfway through the race, and the angry German announcer claimed that the "illiterate" Irish racer would shame the Aryan people by defeating the Nazis in the race. Dierker would shoot out Devlin's tires as they drove through a mountainous part of the track, far from the view of the audience, making it appear as if he was the true winner. Dierker and his "Silver Dart" won the Grand Prix due to his cheating, and Devlin and fellow mechanic Jules Rousseau would later head to the Doppelsieg factory to the north of the town and destroy Dierker's car in revenge. This would lead to Rousseau's death at Dierker's hands, Devlin's escape from captivity as a wanted man, and an intense rivalry to develop between Dierker and Devlin. Just a day after the Grand Prix, German forces invaded neighboring Lorraine at the start of the Battle of France.